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In the News
- Microsoft Purchases GIANT Company Software for Antispyware Solution - Time Warner to Pay $510 Million to Settle AOL Charges with US Government - Intel Takes Itanium Development In-House
==== In the News ====
by Paul Thurrott, [email protected]
Microsoft Purchases GIANT Company Software for Antispyware Solution
This morning, Microsoft pleasantly surprised me by purchasing GIANT Company Software, which makes what I believe is the best antispyware solution on the market. The acquisition includes all of GIANT's products, technology, and staff. Microsoft will soon launch a beta of an upcoming version of Giant AntiSpyware, which will likely be branded a Microsoft product, and will present the solution as the ultimate security companion to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). "Spyware is a serious and growing problem for PC users, and customers have made it clear that they want Microsoft to deliver effective solutions to protect against the threat," Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit, said. "Through this acquisition we're excited to be able to provide near-term relief to Windows customers by offering new technology to help keep spyware and other deceptive software off their PCs." I spoke with GIANT Cofounder Andrew Newman just the other day, before the Microsoft acquisition was finalized, and he told me that his company's spyware solution is unique for several reasons, including its community-driven approach to identifying malware. The company has created an online resource called Spynet that helps catalog and identify the types of executables people install on their PCs. "The Spynet technology helps users decide what is and is not spyware," Newman told me. "The biggest goal is to develop a system that is knowledgeable and intelligent about what applications are spyware. We have the users contribute to it as well. What's amazing is that the Spynet community is helping us determine the actual logic that goes into the system." Although Microsoft has committed to shipping a public beta of the next version of Giant AntiSpyware sometime in the next 30 days, the company hasn't yet determined final product plans, pricing, and a delivery timeline. However, Newman told me that GIANT was working on an enterprise version of its product, which was to have hit the beta stage by the end of 2004. That means Microsoft could very well have sewn up spyware solutions for both its XP and Windows 2000 clients and its Windows Server 2003 and Win2K Server products. As a matter of full disclosure, I investigated numerous antispyware solutions this year after a nasty series of Trojan horses hit my laptop, and I found Giant AntiSpyware to be the best solution by far, well ahead of more well-known applications such as Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. I strongly recommend that all XP and Win2K users take a look at Microsoft's public beta of the next version of Giant AntiSpyware when it's released early next month. If we're lucky, Microsoft will simply roll the technology into future versions of Windows.
Time Warner to Pay $510 Million to Settle AOL Charges with US Government
Media giant Time Warner will pay about $510 million to two US regulatory agencies to settle various fraud charges against its AOL unit, the company revealed this morning. Time Warner will avoid litigation by settling inquiries from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC). However, the deals have several caveats, chief among them that the DOJ and SEC can further investigate company employees. As part of the settlements, Time Warner will restate its earnings from 2001 and 2002, the third time the company has had to do so. The company will also open AOL's financial records from 1999 to 2002 to an independent accountant, who'll determine whether any of AOL's dubious financial transactions during that time merit yet another earnings restatement. Finally, the DOJ reserved the right to investigate other periods of Time Warner's business transactions and potentially pursue individual Time Warner executives if it finds any wrongdoing. Time Warner's settlements are separate and at different stages of completion. The DOJ settlement, which is final, requires that Time Warner pay a fine of $210 million and covers criminal securities fraud charges. The SEC settlement, which covers civil securities fraud charges, will likely be completed in early 2005 at a cost of about $300 million. The deal is pending an SEC investigation into AOL's widely publicized accounting practices. Time Warner merged with AOL in 2001 to form AOL Time Warner and later changed its name back to Time Warner when it discovered that the AOL unit was a financial albatross. The company will officially announce the terms of the settlements in a press conference today.
Intel Takes Itanium Development In-House
Years after the 64-bit Itanium processor they created together has failed to make a big splash in the industry, Intel and HP have ended their microprocessor development alliance. As a result of the dissolution of the alliance, Intel will take all Itanium development in-house and will continue evolving the oft-maligned chip on its own. Both companies, however, pledged to continue supporting Itanium. Under terms of the HP pullout, Intel will hire HP's Itanium technical design team, which is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, and employs several hundred workers. And HP will continue investing in Itanium, with the company announcing a $3 billion commitment to the chip. Whether that figure includes money the company has already spent on the decade-long drive to bring Itanium to market, however, is unclear. Late to market and underpowered when it arrived, the Itanium never really found much of an audience. The Itanium alliance dates back to 1988, when Intel and HP first began collaborating on future processor designs; the first Itanium chip shipped in 2001. In recent years, the Itanium has been overshadowed by Intel's 32-bit Xeon chip, which is based on a more compatible x86 design, and the AMD and Intel x64 products, which are also compatible but offer 64-bit capabilities as well. Recently, Intel started planning an integrated processor future in which x64 and Itanium chips would work off the same motherboard. But my guess is that we're now seeing the beginning of the end of the Itanium, which never really caught on with volume customers and likely never will.
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=============== ==== In the News ====
Microsoft Purchases GIANT Company Software for Antispyware Solution
Time Warner to Pay $510 Million to Settle AOL Charges with US Government
Intel Takes Itanium Development In-House
==== Announcement ====
Get Your Fax Servers Up and Running Smarter, Faster, and More Cost-Effectively
==== Events Central ====
Are You Using Best Practices when Managing Software Packaging and Predeployment Preparation?
==== Contact Us ====
About the newsletter -- [email protected]
About technical questions -- http://www.windowsitpro.com/forums
About product news -- [email protected]
About your subscription -- [email protected]
About sponsoring UPDATE -- [email protected]
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